Here and Back Again
by Alexandra Me Mayne
Summary: The Animorphs have failed. Earth is lost, and Rachel and Tobias wake up to find themselves on an Andalite mother ship, as humans again, after being caught in their morphs. Andalites wish to retire the failures, and put them on a Morph colony on Mars. Rac
1. Me Again

A/n: You know I hate reading this mushy stuff. I mean, I love it, but it leaves me all… Goopy inside. You know the feeling: The "I-wish-I-had-that- in-my-life" feeling. *sigh.* Anyway, ummm… All of the Animorph characters are from Animorph. Plus minus a few. I'm really behind on the series, so, let's see how it goes, kay?  
  
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Me Again  
  
Rachel sat up from her strange hospital bed. It looked crudely modeled, like no one knew what a human slept on… Sorta. She felt a rush of memories flooding back into her mind, then a sharp flash crossed her vision.  
  
Yeerks...Tobias... Jake...Me... Stuck in morph... Cassie caught...  
  
She stifled a scream, and all went black. She woke up some time later, same setting, but her mind was cleared. First thing she did was feel her arms and legs all over. She was human… She sat bolt upright, taking care to keep herself covered (she had realized that she was not wearing any… um… clothing.) But she couldn't be! Sh-she had been trapped! As a cat! She looked beside her bed, at another crudely fashioned sleeping apparatus. There was a boy. He was tall, and looked extremely familiar.  
  
"Tobias?" She whispered, incredulously. But Toby was a hawk! And she... had been a cat. Tobias mumbled something, but did not gain consciousness. She didn't want to wake him. She sat on her bed examining the strange futuristic surroundings, when suddenly, a flood of people rushed into the room. She instantly recognized a brown-haired boy, even if his description had changed since their last adventure: He was Marco, her friend. An Animorph. Then there was a girl. She rushed over to Rachel and hugged her. "Rachel! We thought we had lost you!" She tried to shake off her confusion.  
  
"But Cassie... your dead." she said weakly, but was relieved that the other girl was not affronted by her comment.  
  
"You know who we are." Joked Marco quietly, (very un-Marco like), "But who are you?" Rachel was struck by a thought. She lifted her hands, palms up, and stared at the left one, then the right one. "I-I'm F-fluff... No.. I'm R-r-Rachel... With no last name." She didn't notice that the sheet that had been covering her upper body slid to the ground, or that three pairs of eyes, [Marco, Jake and Tobias] averted, faces blushed. All she knew was the extreme relief that she knew her name. Tears streamed down her face for no reason.  
  
"Now, now, Rache, here." Cassie, the "mother" of the group, handed Rachel a bundle of clothes and pressed a button, setting the world, except Rachel's little bed and the floorspace around it, black. Rachel-Who-Was- Not-Fluffer-Anymore guessed she should get dressed. Rachel smiled to herself and said, "Well, at least I'm me again."  
  
BTW: Okay. A bit strange. I dunno if it's boring, but I thought it wuz kinda neat. Um… Yeah, I am stuck on the cat book. I guess the "Tobias will always be a hawk" drama really hit me. It made me kinda cry. I mean, imagine being stuck in a strange animal's body, missing the world around you. I figured I should bring him back early. ( I'm gonna try for a chapter a week, but with my school schedule, I never know when I'll get the chance… I thought this went quite well, though, for a first run. ( Tyune in next time and see WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!!  
  
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	2. On The Prince Elfangor -- Now things get...

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A/n: The usual disclaimer... All of the Animorph kiddies that where in the book are not mine... the plot IS mine, yadda, yadda, yadda... I'm working on some subtle excitement here. NO GAY PEOPLE!! *Gets sick* some of those Harry P. romance fics are just plain gross.  
  
The Prince Elfangor  
  
Rachel had changed her clothes, and was wandering the strange halls, looking for Cassie, Marco, Jake and Tobias. She found them in the mess hall.  
  
"Whoa! This gives a whole new meaning to mess!" Rachel cried at the sight of aliens of all descriptions... and their eating habits. It was enough to take one's appetite away, watching a strange three legged being slurp up a mouthful of some green goop, and then spit it back out, in an oatmeal colored form. Rachel guessed it was a chlorophyll-consuming thing.  
  
"Heya, guys!" Rachel sat down on a spot Tobias quickly cleared for her beside him.  
  
"Hey, Rache. Whatcha think of the new me?" Tobias said, laughingly flexing his biceps muscle. Rachel laughed as a three-legged stool walked up to her with a tray of green goop. Nrrg- fuuump- kreeb- clliooyuup- trumpf It squealed and grunted, probably trying to pronounce the name of the stuff. Soon it gave up and left, leaving Rachel to negotiate what Cassie called "Malloqueiah."  
  
"It was in my class. It's an Indonesian food... I think. It's made of pulverized spinach with chicken bits and potato pieces."  
  
The rest of the 'Morphs groaned, pushing their plates away. Except for Marco. He declared he liked the stuff.  
  
Sobering up, she turned to the others. Jake was the one to answer her.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"Umm... You got stuck in morph, so we kinda... slipped travel tranquilizers in your food… Because Fluffer sorta took over…"  
  
"Yeah, Jake, tell her how much." (That was Marco)  
  
"Umm... Enough to knock out an ox, at least."  
  
"So that's why I was so confused and dizzy when I first woke up!"  
  
Jake nodded mutely, obviously miserable because he had caused her discomfort.  
  
"That's also why we were worried about whether you knew yourself or not… Plus the cloning process has no promise of memory --"  
  
"iCloning?/i" Rachel dropped her fork on the floor with a clatter. A little spider-like hoverbot scooted in and picked it up in one of its many claws, dropping a clean one on the table. Toby took things in stride. Although he felt like he wanted to cry, he acted brave; for the gang, and most of all, for Rachel. "How?" He asked, straitening his shoulders, "How, when…?"  
  
The other Animorphs looked at each other, and Cassie was the one to speak.  
  
"Well, they cloned what was left of the "human" you. I think they called it "telepathy cloning." They took the samples of "you" from the part of your -- iFluffer's/i or iHawk-boy's/i brain that did the talking, and put you in a hyper-cloning tube. The tube was supposed to have returned all of your memories and stuff from the Fluff or the Hawk to the new you, but there was no promise there… and Fluffer and Hawk-boy were frozen so the process can be repeated in five to fifteen years... And, well, you--"  
  
"ARE CLONES?" Rachel was getting mad... Well, not mad exactly, mostly scared. She was not *THE* Rache, she was THE iclone/i of Rache. What was more, she realized was...  
  
"I've lost my morph." It was one shock too many for her. She collapsed crying. Toby put an arm around her and hugged her shoulders.  
  
"So have I." Toby looked more sad than any other emotion. He had grown to enjoy the feeling of soaring through the sky. He was still adjusting to the weak eyes of humans.  
  
"We all have. The war is over." Cassie grabbed a napkin and wiped her eyes.  
  
"Earth is lost."  
  
Rachel and Toby willed themselves not to hear the last statement. Toby closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.  
  
"So where are we?"  
  
"Well, from what I know, somewhere around Venus."  
  
"WHAT?!?" (Both Rachel and Tobias)  
  
"Ooh yeah. I forgot. This is the Andalite mother ship 'The Prince Elfangor'."  
  
Rachel choked.  
  
"Ship? Space? VENUS?" Tobias looked only in slightly better shape: It was an information overload for both of the Earthlings.  
  
Rachel stood up. "Listen you guys, this iisn't/i funny! So tell the truth now… Or later… OR whenever, but I'M going back to the infirmary." She left mumbling "this is too much…"  
  
A/n: Whoa! Okay! Slow it down here, lap it up, absorb it, whatever. All of that just spilled outta me in raw form. There's no way I can "slow down," I don't think. One piece links to another, etc... But I'll give you a break now. SUSPENSE! Find out next time WHO, WHAT, WHERE, and WHY!!! 


	3. Chapter 3 -- Can you say La Vi?

**************************___ Se La Vie___***************************__________************************  
  
A/N: Yep, disclaimer time again. Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, Jake, Marco, the name "Elfangor", the Andalites... and the rest of the Animorph stuff, isn't mine. The Malouquia [A real food!] and the three-legged alien are mine, more or less, as well as the plot. ENJOY!!  
  
That night, Rachel slept terribly. Nightmares about Earth People with yeerks in their heads kept jerking her awake in cold sweat. She could tell the others were having trouble sleeping as well. Cassie, whom she could see through the sickbay window, was tossing and turning, and Jake was pacing the floor.  
  
"Tobias?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"You awake?"  
  
"No."  
  
"C'mon!"  
  
"Yeah, well, it's those damn yeerks. They keep popping into my dreams, like... like..."  
  
"Yeah. You haven't had a nightmare, until you've met a yeerk, that's for sure."  
  
They chuckled. Then there was a moment of silence.  
  
"Rachel?"  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"This ship has a time machine."  
  
Rachel jolted upright.  
  
"You mean we could--"  
  
"You thought the same thing as I did. Yeah. I'm gonna talk the others into letting us back. Maybe we could 'undo' some of the damage. I could 'unstick' myself from my hawk morph, and you could get 'uncaught' by the Andalite Controller… And we could undo some – some mistakes."  
  
Rachel's breath caught in her throat. It was such a possibility! And Tobias was thinking of the Animorphs and Earth, instead of being able to find out what happened to his mother and who his real father was...  
  
"Let's try to sleep a few more hours, okay Hawkeye?"  
  
"Right. Yeah."  
  
But they couldn't sleep. Not now. They were too excited. Rachel turned the possible ideas over and over in her mind, formulating a plan of action.  
  
"Tobias?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Thanks."  
  
"Cheers."  
  
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The next morning, they confronted the others with the idea.  
  
"Last night, Tobias informed me that this ship has a time machine. Now, I don't know how he found out, but we both figured we'd run an idea by you."  
  
Cassie interrupted.  
  
"But Rache, we don't even know what went wrong!"  
  
Toby came in for the defense.  
  
"But we need to go back anyway. Rachel cannot be sent into the room without some bigger reinforcements." Jake looked slightly wounded at the comment, so Tobias added, "I'm sorry, Jake, but a flea doesn't really help Rachel when she's up against two controllers."  
  
They all nodded mutely. That had been a stupid idea. It had gotten Rachel caught in Fluffer's morph and Tobias nearly killed. Cassie was the one to break the silence.  
  
"Well, if we want to go through with this, then, what's holding us back? We have to go talk to the Cap'n."  
  
Marco looked grouchy, though, and Jake was sullen.  
  
"What?" Rachel asked, yanking Marco's nose.  
  
"You don't ask our opinion!"  
  
Jake nodded slightly - apprehensively.  
  
"Well, then, boys, what are your opinions?"  
  
Marco shot out for the offence, and Jake stayed back with the defense.  
  
"It's stupid! We'll all get Double-killed, er, killed again… or taken over! I mean, The Captain said he was gonna drop us off on an Animorph Colony on Mars."  
  
Rachel froze. So did the rest of them.  
  
"Whoa! Slow down, Marco-and-Jake! An Animorph colony? On Mars?"  
  
Cassie grabbed Rachel before she could clobber Marco.  
  
"There are others like us?"  
  
"According to the captain, there are only about twenty or thirty. They are about our age, maybe a little older, or younger, all orphans. But none as good as we are. We have more morphs, because we were on earth longer. Those ones were just- just...tests!" Marco spat out the word like it tasted funny.  
  
Jake and Cassie looked at each other. Rachel and Toby did as well. It was Cassie, again, that broke the silence. Her voice was filled with fake cheerfulness. Rachel knew that, because there were tears in Cassie's eyes.  
  
"Well, uuhh-I don't think that r-retirement sounds so bad..."  
  
"Yeah, well to me, Cassie, it sounds great. I've had enough of breaking my neck for others. I want to be a normal person. Who only cares about himself and his nonexistent love-life!" They were all stunned at Marco's outburst. It was true. They were tired. But could they just leave Earth in the past? Rachel shook her head, and rubbed her hands over her face.  
  
"Y'know, I think we should retire for the day. We're all under a lot of stress, especially..." She swallowed, "Tobias and me, so, we'll talk again tomorrow. Okay?"  
  
She was surprised at how diplomatic she sounded. Marco turned around, and marched out, still upset, followed by Jake, who was followed by Cassie, calling "Wait up you guys!" That just left Tobias and Rachel. They began to walk to the "sickbay." At least that was what those two sick-looking beds and the compact closets where called.  
  
Rachel sat down on her bed. Toby sat beside her, and slowly put an arm around her shoulders, gently hugging her while she cried. He felt tears pricking at the back of his eyelids as well. Rache looked up and smiled through her tears, and hugged him back.  
  
"Thanks for being there for me, Tobias..." She wanted to say more. She wanted to say she loved him, that she always would, and that she would take care of him forever, if he would just say the words, but she didn't know how he would take it just then. She would wait. And hope.  
  
Toby let go of her shoulders, and walked over to his bed. iWhy hadn't he said it? Just three words? I love you. That's all it would have taken./i He sighed, and lay down on his bed, falling into a restless sleep. He didn't hear Rachel's sobbing, or her voice when she kept crying, "I don't want to be retired until then..."  
  
BTW: *Does the Hamster Dance* Oh yeah!! I finally introduced the *romantic* stuff! *Gets all misty eyed* I just knew Rachel would love Toby! They're exact opposites! Sort of... Meow. I'm surprised I managed this. I'M SO HYPER TODAY!!  
  
A/N: It's so sad that an amazing story can get really screwed up by a hyper writer… *sigh!*  
  
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	4. Arr!! Back again!!

Title: Hmmm. I'm really bad with titles. Let's just say. Ohh, how about "Be Back"  
  
Author: Yours Truly, Alexandra Me Mayne  
  
Basic Plot: Don't as me! ************************************************************************ A/N: Anyway, I ain't makin' no cash off of this (I wish I were, though,) and none of the characters, (save the captain, the andalite guards, the Stjek fly, and any other characters that aren't obviously Animorphies,) are mine. Too bad, huh? So, don't sue. (That line isn't mine either.) *Sigh.* Anyway, I would like to thank a few people for helping this chapter come into existence. Namely: Elcolo9 , Rachel, and Temptress (a.k.a Bryt). R&R THEIR FICS TOO, PEOPLE!!!  
  
br br Here she is. Rachel could feel a hint of pride in the captain's thought- speech. They were standing in front of a huge chunk of twisted metal, bent to somewhat look like a giant Monarch Butterfly. br br "This is it?" Marco waved a hand towards it. "This chunk of post-consumer recycled crap?" He ducked quickly as the captain's tail swooshed out to chop his block off. br br This is a very dangerous device. It is NOT fecal matter. br br Marco, who was still recovering from the near death experience, rubbed his neck and nodded mutely. Cassie was more animated. br br "So, Captain, how does this thing work?" She patted the metal object's left "wing". You press this green button, and put in the password. He turned his back to the group as he quickly typed in the pass. The group could hear an odd number of different pitched beeps. Then you commence to type in the exact year, date and time you wish to go back to. He typed in "15 minutes ago" and threw his watch into a large beam of light. Then you press the green button a second time and you get zapped back. The watch dematerialized and appeared back in the alien's pocket. br br Tobias whistled appreciatively, and discreetly placed an arm around Rachel's waist. "Fancy." br br Rachel looked up at him in surprise. "But there are two watches!" br br It's complicated..  
  
************************************ Later... br br Rachel and Toby were packing a small knapsack with the few belongings they had acquired on board the ship. They were planning to make their escape that night, when most of the night-shift guards were asleep. Plus, the few Andalite and Slave-drone bodies they had acquired would come in handy on occasion. br br "Whatcha lookin' for?" Asked Tobias casually, watching Rachel root under her bed for something or another.br "Mrph-pulrfffeck-aahh-wrnt." Was Rache's muffled reply from under the bed.br "Ah-ha. Could you clarify?"br Rachel pulled her self out from under the bed, holding a single pearl drop earring between her thumb and forefinger. She was surrounded by an air of defiance.br "Gocha!"br "That's what you have been hunting for, for the last half hour?" br Rachel smiled sheepishly, pulling herself closer to him. "I guess I got a little carried away." Her smile became more seductive than sheepish, as she began to trace Toby's lips with her forefinger, dropping the earrings once more. br iDamn she knows how twist my finger./i he thought, as he leaned forward to give her a long passionate kiss. Just as Rachel was about to reach for his shirt, a quiet rapping was heard on the door. br "Aw, crap." Rachel whispered fiercely, checking her fuchsia blouse, as she walked towards the door. br br ******** br br "Hey, Rache. What's up?" Cassie, Jake and Marco were on the other side of the door, each with a barely filled backpack on a shoulder. Rachel could barely hide her annoyance at the un-wanted interruption. ibarely./i br br "Let's get going people, we ain't got all night." Said Marco in a low tone, doing his best to imitate a Bronx accent. Rachel and Toby grabbed their packs, and began the short trip to the beam-deck to get to their time machine. "Umm. Rache? You forgot this." Said Toby, smiling, as he held up her forgotten earring. "Danke." She said, smiling, as she placed it in her ear. Her eyes were sparkling with what Toby hoped was a "We'll carry on later" look. br br ******** br br None too soon, after an uneventful walk, the small group reached the time machine. "Shoot. Look at all those guards!" whispered Jake in amazement. "We'll have to morph into-" "Stjek flies." That was Marco. br br "iWhat/i flies?" "Stjek flies. I read into the history of this ship, and apparently, the science bay is full of them. They feed off of the stray spores and molecules that may escape the experiments." "Sort of like molecular scavenger?" Rachel was beginning to feel sick. The one time she morphed into a scavenger, was when she was a shrew. She remembered the overpowering hunger for rotting flesh and maggots. Jake was remembering his lizard morph, and Toby was remembering the first few days of his Hawk morph. Sensing the hesitation, Marco began to morph into the Stjek fly. "It isn't so bad, guys. I acquired one earlier, and flew around for a little while. No one harms us. We're the good guys -" He stopped talking as his head disappeared, and he became a small bug, about the size of a persons pinky finger nail, with bright red and yellow markings that criss- crossed his back. br br Okay guys. Acquire away. br br "Can we ido/i that?" Rachel asked, distressed, "I mean, what if we turn half-Marco, or something?" br br Then you morph back, and never try the Stjek fly again. was Marco's firm reply. Cassie nodded in grim agreement, and stepped forward for first dibs. br br *******br br I don't like the Stjek fly very much. Rachel said, as they buzzed past the security guards, towards the machine. br br Hey, it's either this, or cockroaches. And Roaches are a lot less appreciated, and a lot rarer in this part of space. Came Jake's matter-of- fact answer. br br Rache could feel Marco's discomfort as well. The little bugs' minds were unbelievably strong, for their size. br br I'm bored. Marco zoomed down to the nose of one of the Andalite guards, and stung him. Jake and Toby cursed under their breath, as they began to demorph in a dark corner of the room. Before Rachel finished returning to human form, she yelled in thought-speech, Marco, if you survive this, I'll kill you, you ass! A/N: I figured I should put Marco up to his old antics again.. He *was* against the whole idea in the first place. Why shouldn't he sabotage it? Anyway, my new PC is virus-ridden, so I can't write as often as I would like to. It all has something to do with a certain family member dorking around with my computer, and losing my Norton AntiVirus. ~*CURSE YOU WHICHEVER FAMILY MEMBER YOU ARE!!*~ ***** 


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